Friday, May 30, 2008

Polygamy was front and center on Thursday's AC360. Anderson called it a stunning decision made by the Texas Supreme Court, I would classify it as more of a disturbing decision. As I watched the file footage of the FLDS women coming and going from the courthouse I was struck by the fact that they are not accompanied by men. It's just so odd, since they do so little in their lives without male supervision. I'm sure it was a concerted effort from the male elders of the religion to keep a low profile.I do wonder what the children have been exposed to while in State care. Will it be hard for them to go back to no television or video games and their old homemade toys, etc. Maybe some of the older children will realize now that outsiders are not as evil as they have been brainwashed to believe.Scott McCellan's bombshell book was next up on the program. Anderson sat down with David Gergen and Bruce Weinstein to discuss the day's developments. Gergen felt that the White House and its emissaries reactions have been unusually intense. He likened it to a carpet bombing of McCellan, possibly linked to the anticipated report due out from the Senate Intelligence Committee and its findings about the run-up to the war.Anderson will have an exclusive one on one interview with Scott McClellan on Friday night's AC360. There was little mention of John McCain or Hillary Clinton in Thursday's AC360. Of the Obama related news, most was not very positive. Guess the old adage no news is good news held true for HRC and Johnny Mac. I have very little to say about the Rev. Pfleger except where does this church find these people to preach? And why was the congregation not offended? There is a huge disconnect in this country and this is just another example.Candy Crowley and Mary Francis Berry discussed the Reverend with Anderson. I must say the more I see of MFB the more I love her. She is just a delight. And when she said the press really hasn't done its job in this campaign I couldn't have agreed more. Please CNN give us more Mary Francis Berry! And totally off topic but CC looked fabulous last night.Raw Politics on Thursday was Drew Griffin's piece on the early political career of Barack Obama. Were you surprised? After all he is a lawyer and he was campaigning in Chicago. Looks like BHO didn't make too many friends with his early campaign tactics. But I guess what counts was it was legal, not who he stepped on to get there?

The Shot was rather odd on Thursday night program...judge for yourself (thanks to Sapphire for the upload.)

In the second hour of AC360 I don't think The Shot was aired, but Anderson did read comments from the 360 blog that were posted by Bev in NY, Kent in Illinois and Cindy.

In The News:•CNN announced today that Lisa Ling will be joining the Planet in Peril 2 crew. From the CNN press release:"For Planet in Peril: Battle Lines, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and The Oprah Winfrey Show correspondent and National Geographic host Lisa Ling travel to the front lines of these environmental conflicts where countries, communities and individuals are fighting over oil, land, water and food. The documentary, to be taped in high definition, will air in late 2008".

•Jeffrey Toobin will speak at 8 p.m. Friday, May 30th at Connecticut College in New London, Conn. The lecture will be held in the Cummings Arts Center (Evans Hall). There will also be a book signing and question and answer session, after Toobin's lecture. The event is free and open to the public.

•CNN will offer special programing on Saturday to cover the DNC meetings regarding Florida and Michigan. The coverage is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m Eastern. The special will be anchored by lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer. CNN.com Live will have a camera inside and live streaming the entire meeting at 9:30 a.m. A special live edition of This Week in Politics will air from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Then at 7 p.m., the in-depth political coverage continues with a one-hour special Election Center.

•On Sunday, June 1, a special edition of Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer will broadcast live from the CNN Election Center in New York from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m Eastern. Wolf will have 'the best political team on television' providing coverage. American Morning's John Roberts will handle duties at the multi touch board (magic map to us). At 1 p.m., CNN will premiere Fareed Zakaria: GPS, a new weekly international news and discussion program. Then at 2 PM Eastern it's back to the Election Center for Puerto Rico results and analysis. A special CNN Newsroom with Rick Sanchez will follow at 7 p.m Eastern.

•A question was asked in our comments a few days ago requesting news of the John King/Dana Bash wedding. The Washington Post posted this on Tuesday:

Married: CNN's Dana Bash, 36, and John King, 44, in a traditional Jewish wedding on Cape Cod Sunday night. The media couple -- Washington co-workers who fell in love -- tried to keep the beachside nups low-key with just family and a few friends. King converted to Judaism for his bride; second marriage for both.

And on American Morning Thursday it was mentioned that the newlyweds are honeymooning in Costa Rica. Let's hope that tropical storm headed their way changes course.

12 comments:

The best part of 360 on Thursday for me was the engrossing ethics discussion with AC, David Gergen and Bruce Weinstein. Gergen is someone I rarely disagree with, but I think Bruce Weinstein was right, ethics trump everything, including the President's expectation of privacy, if the people are being ill-served by those in elected office, it is crucial that someone speaks out against it and preferably before too much damage is inflicted.

The controversial church stuff has become tiresome, it's not going to go away though. Mary Frances Berry is pretty cool, I agree. Good to know AC still reads the blog comments on the air sometimes.

360 was good last nite. I too find it odd that you never seem to see the men at the courthouse. Some of the children probably won't want to go back, but others will probaly be glad to go back to what they know.

Phebe, I too wonder where that church finds people to preach. Can't they find someone nomral and non-contriversal.

I wasn't really surprised by Drew Griffin's piece. Obama wanted it bad enough and did everything he could with in the law to make sure he won.

I am happy that Lisa Ling will be apart of PIP II. I think she is a great journalist and will be an asset to PIP.

Well, it's not just in Chicago that politics is played that way -- when I worked for a politician, we routinely got a minimum of double the required number of signatures (even when he was running unopposed) and checked every single signature of the entire slate of the other party.

Any confirmation that Anderson renewed with 60 Minutes this coming fall/next year? Of are we just assuming he renewed? I guess there isn't always an announcement when there is a renewal but usually on the initial year.

Very interesting post. Thanks for the John King and Dana Bash update.I for one, did not like "the shot,"which aired on the East Coast. After the wild animals were shown a CNN staffer made believe he was smashing the camera lens. Whoever had this idea, was very immature.Personally I do not care for the new addition to Planet in Peril II. Oprah might like her but I do not.

I'm glad to see Anderson doing agressive reporting again. I hope the McClellan interview lives up to its hype. If he wants to be known as a "hard hitter" he should do more Jessica Yellin type vettings and less R@K.

I saw the interview and, in my opinion, Anderson really grilled McClellan. So, it was a tough interview and I don't really think he was arrogant in expressing that.

About the Obama segment, I guess we now know he's also capable of playing "dirty." I'm sure people will say he was playing by the rules. However, lawyers who get criminals acquitted on technicalities also play by the rules....should we applaud them for doing this?

acanderfan, what he said was that it was "probably the toughest interview he (SM) has so far faced..." especially because this is probably the first interviewer who had time to actually read the book first. (And considering that SM just started his promo tour yesterday.)

I'm glad the guy wrote the book, even though it's way too late. But I hate the way he ALMOST feels bad about lying to the public! I mean, yes, that's part of the job... but not all of it, and not to the extent that he did it. Wolf asked him today whether he felt he owed the American people an apology and he basically said no. A$$....